In congratulating Jae Crowder for winning Big East Player of the Year today, I want to start by first congratulating Kevin Jones. Putting on my stat cruncher hat instead of my MU hat for a moment, I thought that finishing non-conference play with a 28 point, 17 rebound game against Baylor on December 23, Kevin Jones was the second best player in the country behind Anthony Davis. That followed up a 30/12 performance against K-State.

Jae Crowder was playing like an All-American in non-conference play as well, but Jones looked like he had a shot at National Player of the Year.

I say all this to point out that Jae just won a Super Bowl in beating out Kevin Jones for Conference Player of the Year. However, in a side-by-side Crowder was better in every aspect except for rebounding.

The argument that Jones also averaged more points (19.0 ppg to 18.0 ppg in conference play) doesn't hold up once you realize Jones took 66 more shots than Jae to score 41 more points on field goals (43 more points when you add free throws). So when you realize that Jae was actually a better scorer, shot blocker, had well over twice as many assists and more than six times as many steals, and shut down Jones in their head-to-head, it really was a clear choice.

For overall play all season Value Add ranks Crowder as the No. 2 move valuable player in the country and Jones as the No. 4 – so that’s a coin toss. However, in conference play Jae had a pretty clear advantage in a Super Bowl of candidates.